Tag Archives: minimum wage

While I’m not among those in a panic, the Ebola scare has brought to light so many duplicitous shortcomings in a government “for the people by the people” that it was impossible to resist elaborating.

The first U.S. diagnosed case, Eric Duncan, appeared in Texas, another state that refused Medicaid expansion for no reason other than spite. His estimated health care cost is around $500,000. This reminds anyone with memory longer than the span of news cycle that the CDC (along with the federal government) was shut down a year ago for related reasons (hate/spite). The National Institute for Health (NIH) has stated, if not for budget cuts, there would be a vaccine now. Partisan politics also denied us a Surgeon General during this time. Has anyone from the supposedly liberal media asked governor Rick Perry whether he could reconsider expanding Medicaid if the crises worsened? Of course not. They’re too busy interviewing fiction writers.

Nurses who treated Duncan were afraid to complain about inadequate preparation for fear of losing their jobs. Members of Nation Nurses United have no such reservations. Those dependent on minimum wage jobs aren’t likely to risk calling in sick, even if they could pay to see a doctor. It is possible Duncan was turned away on his first hospital visit because he lacked insurance. While not wishing disease on anyone, wouldn’t it be poetic irony if this manageable disease returned full circle to bite those at the top of corporate food chain?

“Here’s your dinner, Mr. Koch.” This has potential to be most demonstrable result yielded from two generations of failed trickle down economics.